Write Memoirs from Your Soul: Nan Merrick Phifer

Textbook author and workshop presenter Nan Merrick Phifer goes beyond standard memoir-writing guidelines and directs readers to a “voyage of the soul.” Public records, photographs, certificates, and other documents are physical evidence of your existence, she writes, but unless you reveal your feelings and thoughts, “few people will ever truly know you.”

Although she covers the basics of writing prompts, rough drafts, revising, negative criticism, procrastination, and so on, she goes much deeper, taking you into the world of yourself and showing how to capture your “love, grief, satisfaction, longing, … values, motives, beliefs, and hopes.” In other words, your soul.

Call up your emotions
Phifer suggests you do not begin chronologically, although you may end up there. She recommends listing people who have been important to you, places of significant events in your life, things you would be sorry to lose, and your important experiences. Start by replacing the word important with intense and list times:

Your heart pounded.

Your stomach tightened.

Your skin tingled.

You held your breath.

You wept with joy, grief, or sympathy.

You want to relive.

You want to erase.

Smells, lights, sounds, and tastes often can stimulate memories, she writes.

Listening to your draft will help you find weak and strong points. She suggests you read your draft aloud or ask a friend to read it to you.

She divides the book into four parts. Part I, Beginnings, covers how to start and takes you through childhood and adolescence. Part II, Rising Action, helps you write about events that shaped your life including religion, struggles, marriage, birth, and death. Part III, Climaxes and Revelations, deals with love as a gift, dreams and visions, and spiritual well-being. Part IV, The Rewards, is for reflection, review, rewriting. Make a book
Phifer distinguishes between memoirs and autobiographies. Memoirs
focus on hours and minutes when you are most alive, moments of joy or
crisis that define you, while autobiographies are broad overviews.

“You may be satisfied to have explored your inner life by means of writing and feel no inclination to leave a written record.” If you want to produce a book from your writing experiences, Phifer takes you through a simplified process. Parts of your book include:

Title page

Introduction

Author photograph

Chapters

Conclusion

Date

She shows how to make deletions and changes, replace general nouns with specific nouns, change passive voice to active voice, replace verbs of “being,” rearrange sections of writing, and proofread for a polished finish. A copy shop or printer can handle actual production of your book.

Pfifer states many writers find writing is more fulfilling than producing a book. “The writing itself may have been a spiritual experience,” not necessarily religious, but “the essential and activating principle at the center of your being, your intangible essence.”

How do you find your spiritual center and write about it? Have you read a good book that helped you and want to review it here? See Guidelines for Guest Posts and Book Reviews.Nan Phifer taught at secondary and college levels. She was a National Teaching Fellow under Title III of the Higher Education Act, and granted a Certificate of Award in Recognition of Distinguished Achievement in Adult Basic Education Programs. Now retired from college teaching, she presents workshops to writers' groups, libraries, religious and contemplative organizations, continuing education programs, and retreat and renewal organizations. She may be reached at www.memoirworkshops.com. Photo courtesy www.memoirworkshops.com.

4 comments:

I second your accolades for this book. By making the distinction between memoir and autobiography, she makes the process of writing about life approachable by a wider spectrum. I especially like that you included her observation, "... many writers find writing is more fulfilling than producing a book." Thanks for this great review, and I join you in urging readers to get their eyes on a copy.

Wayne, thanks for your thorough review. I have this book but on Kindle. I've been thinking I might get more from it if I read it from a paper version. Somehow it seems like a book I want to "feel" in my hands. I do know I need to get busy and finish reading it, especially after reading your review. Thanks so much!

Thanks, Sharon. "Approachable" is an excellent descriptor. By deciding early on which life story form to use--memoir, autobiography, or family history--a person has a much clearer picture of the scope of work ahead and is less apt to take a dozen unproductive routes.

Welcome

Hi and thanks for stopping by. Feel free to post a comment or contact me with any question on writing your lifestory as memoir, biography, or family history. I would love to hear from you. See Contact and About below. I'm also available for speaking and workshop presentations. Whether you're new to writing or have been published many times, I hope you find my articles useful. Here is wishing you the best of every success with your writing projects.